This book brings together recent research by a group of specialists in history and sociology to provide a new reading of the late Franco dictatorship, especially in relation to its political culture. The authors focus on the election of local, trade union and national representatives, the work of the first Spanish sociologists, the struggle over administrative reform, the role of the media and the intellectuals, as well as the evolution of the dictatorships political class and its response to the regimes decline. Not only are the politics of the late dictatorship scrutinised, but also the mechanisms that were deployed to control the fast-changing society of the 1960s and 1970s. In examining the late Franco period, the contributors do not believe that it contained the seeds of Spains later democratisation, but maintain that certain sectorial regime initiatives -- electoral and political changes, an evolving discourse and an interest in political processes outside Spain -- made many Spaniards aware of the dictatorships contradictions and limitations, thereby encouraging its subsequent political and social evolution. This transformation is compared with the latter stages of the parallel dictatorship in Portugal. The great majority of Spaniards felt that the embrace of democratic freedoms and integration into the European Community was the only way forward during the Transition. But the shift from dictatorship to democracy from the 1960s onwards in Spain needs to be understood in relation to the multitude of political and social changes that took place -- despite the opposition of Franco and the bunker mentality of the regime. These changes manifested in a complex interaction between internal and external factors, which eventually resulted in the transformation of Spanish society itself.
This book explores the history and legacy of monuments to the fallen from the Francoist side in the Spanish Civil War. Del Arco Blanco studies thousands of monuments in towns and cities across Spain to provide a detailed account of the history and memory of the civil war, Francoism, and the transition to democracy. Chapters in the book focus on the myth of those said to have 'fallen for God and for Spain'—a phrase that encapsulated and shaped the dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Spaniards. They also focus on the use of monuments to control political and ideological ideals and to legitimise the Francoist dictatorship. Further chapters study Spanish society’s struggle to deal with its past of mass killing, denial, and exclusion. Del Arco Blanco also pays attention to the way the Francoist authorities used monuments and memory for their political and ideological advantage and to control people, power as well as the political agenda. The book draws on extensive research to reconstruct both the specific history of monuments scattered throughout the country and their role within manipulative Francoist memory of the Spanish Civil War. In these ways, monuments helped shape the Francoist narrative and memory, but they also became part of the landscape of contemporary Spanish history. This book is an excellent resource for postgraduate students and professional researchers studying the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and the influence of monuments on the construction of national memory, culture, and society in Spain both at the time and through to the present day.
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